Returning to Work After Traumatic Spine Fractures: Current Status in a Military Hospital

The consequences of traumatic spine fracture (TSF) are complex and have a major burden on patients' social life and financial status. In this study, we aimed to investigate the return to work (RTW) after surgically treated TSFs, develop eventual predictors of delayed or failure to RTW, and assess narcotics use following such injuries.

This was a single-center retrospective cohort study that was performed in a tertiary care center. TSF patients who required surgical intervention from 2016 to 2021 were enrolled. Demographic, operative, and complication data, as well as narcotics use, were recorded. RTW was modeled using multivariate logistic regression analysis.

Within the 173 patients with TSF, male patients accounted for 82.7%, and motor vehicle accidents were the most common mechanism of injury (80.2%). Neurologically intact patients represented 59%. Only 38.15% returned to work after their injury. Majority of the patients didn't use narcotics more than 1 week after discharge (93.1%). High surgical blood loss, operation time, and hospital length of stay were significantly associated with not returning to work. In multivariant regression analysis, every increase of 100 ml of surgical blood loss was found to decrease the chance of RTW by 25% (P = 0.04). Furthermore, every increase of one hour in operation time decreases the chance of RTW by 31% (P = 0.03).

RTW is an important aspect that needs to be taken into consideration by health care providers. We found that age and high surgery time, blood loss, and hospital stay are significantly impacting patients' RTW after operated TSF.